Current Issues in U.S. Litigation Discussed at Korean CLE Seminar

By Tom Feissner

On April 15, 2016, a select group of Korean patent and intellectual property attorneys convened at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Seoul for a continuing legal education seminar entitled “Current Issues in U.S. Litigation.” The seminar was jointly hosted by the law firm of Covington & Burling, LLP and the data analytics firm UBIC. Lisa V. Feissner, RDR, CRR and Thomas K. Feissner, CLVS were in attendance as representatives of Planet Depos. LexisNexis was also on hand as an event sponsor.

First up was Chang Sik (Charles) Kim, Special Counsel at Covington, who discussed “Hot Topics in U.S. Patent Law.” As both an adjunct professor at Seoul National University Law School and a special committee member of the Korean Department of Justice, Dr. Kim is eminently qualified to address such issues as the impact of recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions on the outcome of pending and future intellectual property enforcement actions, as well as the shifting of strategies pursued by litigants as a result of what he described as “the Court’s continued activist role.”

Dr. Kim also touched on international patent litigation issues in his comments, specifically the effect of the soon-to-be-operational Unified Patent Court for European patents, the upward trend in the number of patent infringement suits filed in both China and the United States, and the factors contributing to the slowdown in the number of cases filed with the International Trade Commission.

Scott Schrader, Esquire of Covington & Burling’s Seoul office next discussed the significance of the 2015 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, with particular emphasis given to the amendments concerning the scope of discovery under Rule 26 and objections to requests for the production of documents under Rule 34. Mr. Schrader explained that in the context of patent and other intellectual property disputes, one party usually bears a disproportionate burden when it comes to document production and that the new amendments to the FRCP are specifically designed to address this issue as well as increase the efficiency of the discovery process in general.

The ethics portion of the seminar, also presented by Mr. Schrader, concerned the amendments to FRCP Rule 37(e). He explained that although the changes to Rule 37(e) limit penalties for the negligent destruction of electronically stored information (ESI), the new amendments also contemplate that a more judicious approach will be taken by the parties with respect to preservation of ESI. Mr. Schrader then concluded his remarks with several examples of the consequences of willful, as opposed to negligent, destruction of documents.

The final topic on the agenda was “How Tech is Being Used in Today’s Courtroom” by Sunny Yoon of UBIC. More specifically, Ms. Yoon explained the principle of predictive coding and how it is being utilized in the legal environment. The upshot of her discussion was that as predictive coding becomes more sophisticated, it will make e-discovery requests more relevant, efficient, and economical when used in conjunction with more traditional forms of data analytics.

For more information on how Planet Depos can provide you with a comprehensive suite of court reporting, video, trial presentation and electronic document management services for your next patent or other intellectual property case, please contact us at 888-433-3767, or send us an email at international@planetdepos.com.